The following is an installment in "The Bouchard 101", a series featuring "Ice Breaker's" designed to promote training awareness and capabilities in the corrections industry.

Students break up into teams and are asked 11 questions from a previous lecture. The number 11 is chosen to lessen the likelihood of a tie. The beauty of this exercise is that the content is easily harvested from lecture notes.

Lucky 11 can be read as in a quiz show format or placed on a PowerPoint presentation.

What about the incentive? Bragging rights can be the prize. Also, the instructor can allow the winning team captain select a gift from the box of dubious prizes. Candy is also a good incentive.

Lucky 11 serves as a review. Competition to heat things up and enlivens the material. But the nuances of teamwork can also be explored and discussed in a post mortem.

A simple example follows:

Parole is an inalienable right. No one can take it away once it is granted. FALSE

Morrison versus Densmore is the court case concerning due process and the parole revocation process. FALSE - it is Morresey v Brewer

Pardon is an executive act that legally excuses a convicted offender form criminal penalty. TRUE

Discretionary release – early release based on paroling authority’s assessment of eligibility. TRUE

Mandatory release – early release after a time specified by law. TRUE

Parole is French in origin and was a way to get indentured servants transported for labor – many times to the colonies in Quebec. FALSE

Sir Walter Crofton (Irish Prison Director) in 1854 was an important figure in forming parole concepts in the UK. TRUE

The MPRI Model involves improved decision making at critical decision points in the three phases – called: getting ready, going home and staying home. TRUE

In 2005, 500,000 people were put on parole. Only 15000 (3%) returned for trv or technical rule violation. FALSE– it was 20000 or 38%.

Parole in America came in 1837 via Mass. legislation. But it was not until 1876 in Elmira New York that a program officially came into being. Superintendent Brockway implemented what was called Upward Classification. TRUE

Parole has no strings attached and is not part of a sentence. The offender becomes a parolee is no longer under the Department of Corrections jurisdiction. FALSE

Joe Bouchard is a Librarian employed with the Michigan Department of Corrections and a collaborator with The International Association of Correctional Training Personnel (IACTP). He is also the author of “IACTP’s Corrections Icebreakers: The Bouchard 101, 2014”. The installments in this series include his opinions. The agency for which he works is not in any way responsible for the content or accuracy of this material, and the views are those of the contributor and not necessarily those of the agency. While some material is influenced by other works, all of the icebreakers have been developed by Joe Bouchard.